Another Lokayukta raid yields assets worth crores

Of the seven accused, three belong to the police department, two are transport department employees, a KAS officer and an assistant engineer with the Karnataka Land Army.

Their total income by way of pay and perks comes to around Rs 2.29 crore, whereas the accused amassed property worth around Rs 11.02 crore, Lokayukta N Santosh Hegde told reporters on Wednesday.

The accused have been identified as Fakirappa B Chowhan (ACP, Traffic, Hubli-Dharwad), (AD Nagaraj, Police Inspector, Railway, Bangalore City), Syed Mobin (Assistant Engineer, Karnataka Land Army, Gulbarga), Eranna (Inspector of Motor Vehicles, Raichur), Ramachandrappa (Sub-Inspector of Excise, Bangalore), Ramachandra Murthy, KAS (Administrative & Vigilance Officer, Mysore Minerals Ltd) and Ikram Pasha (Inspector of Motor Vehicles, Bidar).

Benami deals

The accused had reportedly amassed benami assets in the names of their relatives, including spouses.

The Lokayukata said: “The police found more money in the account of Ikram Pasha, when he was serving in Humnabad checkpost, during a raid on June 25, 2009. Pasha expected a raid on his house anytime and managed to shift some documents and other articles. So the sleuths did not find anything in his house. Search for his assets continued and he will be subjected to interrogation.”

The police found 20 new suits and 300 shirts and trousers when they raided the house of Ramachandrappa.

He owns a house in the name of his maternal uncle, Mayanna Gowda, a retired teacher. The house is constructed on nine acres which is rented out for film shooting. He also owns a wine shop in his daughter’s name in Bangalore. He was serving as an excise guard till 2001 when he was promoted as Sub Inspector, disclosed Hegde. The tale of Fakirappa is no different. He owns two petrol bunks in Dharwad besides lands and sites in Dharwad and Belgaum.

A D Nagaraj seems to have fascination for sites as he owns five sites, worth of which is more than Rs 1.30 crore. He runs a school (Aishwarya Education Trust, Hassan) in his daughter Aishwarya’s name. He also runs a tailor shop in Hemavathinagar in Hassan.
Syed Mobin has an industrial unit named Ali Plastic in his wife’s name in Yadagir. This unit has stopped production. Interestingly, this unit bought Suleman Steels in Gulbarga spending Rs 25 lakh! He has a share in 10 acre land in Gulbarga and runs a school Dolphins Primary School in Gulbarga.

Eranna has amassed huge quantity of property in his co-brother’s name. He has, to his credit, nine expensive cars and a JCB Machine. His co-brother has not paid income tax till 2003-04. Eranna runs Hotel Samrat at Gurmitkal whose worth is Rs 1.60 crore.
Ramachandra Murthy owns four acres of coconut and arecanut garden at Kogilu village in his wife’s name. Of all the accused Eranna tops the list as ‘his worth’ is more than Rs 3.56 crore whereas his known income is Rs 45 lakh, while AD Nagaraj is poor with Rs 74 lakh. Worth of all other accused is between Rs 1 to 1.80 crore.

DH News Service